Big changes could be coming to the schools throughout the Vicksburg Warren School District in the next few years.

Gary Bailey, with Dale/Bailey Architects, presented the findings of a months long district-wide facilities assessment at a special called meeting of the Board of Trustees Wednesday, which calls for massive upgrades to facilities throughout the district costing in upwards of $130 million.

The study included assessments of each of the schools in the districts, analysis of projected population changes in Warren County and multiple community listening sessions.

One of the major findings was that there is substantial overcrowding at Vicksburg and Warren Central high schools and Warren Central Junior High. The study also found less overcrowding at the Academy of Innovation and Bowmar and Bovina elementary schools.

“Your buildings are driven by your programs,” Bailey said. “Historically we have forced education into buildings that didn’t fit and you are doing a great job of forcing those in and doing great things. Your programs are much stronger than your buildings are responding to them.”

Bailey and his team crafted four options for the Board of Trustees to choose from.

The options ranged from a projected price tag of $124.5 million to $142 million.

Of the four options, Bailey recommended that the board choose between the two that fell in the middle pricewise and would cost $131.5 million or $132 million.

The slightly cheaper of the two options call for keeping the existing high school facilities, but making massive renovations to the existing buildings and also large expansions to address the issue of both schools being an estimated 12 to 18 classes short. 

“… would renovate and expand the high schools with major work to them,” Bailey said. “It is not a timid thing. It is looking at substantial additions, new entry points, new images, new circulation patterns, new media centers, new cafeterias and most importantly your career academies to a high level.”

That option would also call for renovating the existing elementary schools and building a new facility for the Academy of Innovation on the same campus as the two existing junior highs.

The current AOI facility would then be used to expand the magnet program at Bowmar Elementary.

For athletics, Bailey said in this option the board would have the choice of massive upgrades to the existing facilities or building one new facility that both high schools would share.

The second of the two recommended options calls for a much more radical change. Priced at $132 million, the option calls for massive renovations to the existing Warren Central High School and building a brand new Vicksburg High on land adjacent to WCHS.

The two high schools would then share a new career academy facility and have shared athletic facilities.

“The difference is you are adding onto Warren Central and you are building a new Vicksburg High School,” Bailey said. “That is a big deal. That is a big change in mentality to go from a high school in town to a high school in the Warren Central zone.”

This option also calls for renovations to the existing elementary schools, moving Vicksburg Junior High into the current Vicksburg High and then moving AOI and the central office into the current VJHS. Bowmar would then be able to expand into the current AOI building.

The two options that were not recommended called for either moving both high schools into the current junior high schools or building one combined high school.

“We are at the point now where our facilities have to have money put in them,” Superintendent Chad Shealy said. “They have to be functional. Not spectacular, but functional. If we are talking about spending money on functional needs, what better time would it be to go out to the community and say ‘hey what do you want.’ I understand the price tag is there, but I believe our students are worth it.”